Iveagh Tiara

Next week marks the 70th Anniversary of the Death of Queen Mary! The Teck Princess who lived through the reigns of six monarchs and was the Queen Consort for twenty-five years, as well as a Queen Mother to two Kings and the Queen Grandmother to Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary assembled much of the British Royal Family’s spectacular Jewellery Collection, so we are featuring some of the jewels in the days leading up to the anniversary, continuing with Queen Mary’s Iveagh Tiara!

Queen Mary’s Crown | Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara | Vladimir Tiara | Delhi Durbar Tiara | Cambridge Emerald Parure | Lover’s Knot Tiara | Fringe Tiara | Gloucester Honeysuckle Tiara | Cambridge Sapphire Parure | Iveagh Tiara | Amethyst Tiara | Ladies of England Tiara | Surrey Fringe Tiara | The Jewels of Queen Mary  

When Princess May of Teck married the Duke of York, the future King George V, in 1893, she received a series of spectacular gifts of jewellery from various parts of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, among which was this striking Tiara, a tightly packed design of diamond scrolls and foliage in a kokoshnik shape, from the Earl and Countess of Iveagh. The then Princess of Wales was initially pictured in the Iveagh Tiara for a series of portraits in the early 1900s, along with her Love Trophy Collar.

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The Iveagh Tiara was one of few of Queen Mary’s wedding gifts was was not redesigned or dismantled, being retained throughout her life, and notably appearing for a Gala Performance of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ by the Sadler’s Wells Ballet at Covent Garden in 1946, to mark the re-opening of the Royal Opera House following the Second World War.

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After Queen Mary’s death in 1953, the Iveagh Tiara was among the Jewels inherited by her daughter-in-law, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who wore the Tiara for several occasions through the 1950s and the 1960s, including with Queen Mary’s eleven-row Pearl Choker for the Iraqi State Visit to Britain in 1956, the the Thai State Visit to Britain in 1960, the State Opening of Parliament in 1960, and a Banquet at Nepalese Embassy in 1960.

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By the 1980s, Princess Alice had passed along the Iveagh Tiara to her daughter-in-law, the current Duchess of Gloucester, though as her fourth largest Tiara, it was rarely worn, appearing notably for the State Opening of Parliament in 1981, at several Guildhall Banquets and Return Banquets at Claridge’s Hotel, like during the Brunei State Visit to Britain, as well as for the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester’s Anniversary Portraits in 1989.

In 2008, the Duchess of Gloucester loaned the Iveagh Tiara to her younger daughter, Lady Rose Windsor, for her Wedding to George Gilman at the Queen’s Chapel of St. James’s Palace.

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Since the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester continue to represent the Royal Family at the Guildhall Banquets, the Duchess of Gloucester has continued to wear the Iveagh Tiara in recent years, more recently for the Coronation of the King of Tonga in 2008, the Colombian State Visit to Britain in 2016 and the Queen’s Commonwealth Dinner at Buckingham Palace in 2018. There is no doubt we will continue to see this striking Royal Heirloom for years to come!

Queen Mary’s Crown | Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara | Vladimir Tiara | Delhi Durbar Tiara | Cambridge Emerald Parure | Lover’s Knot Tiara | Fringe Tiara | Gloucester Honeysuckle Tiara | Cambridge Sapphire Parure | Iveagh Tiara | Amethyst Tiara | Ladies of England Tiara | Surrey Fringe Tiara | The Jewels of Queen Mary  

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